


The Only One of Her Kind

by catstuff



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fusion, Garnet POV, Ruby POV, Sapphire POV, The Answer, in that order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 22:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5643916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catstuff/pseuds/catstuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby and Sapphire form Garnet for the first time, unintentionally and barely realizing what has happened and what it means for them. Written after The Answer first aired; a rewrite of the canon fusion scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Only One of Her Kind

You hear the _tink, tink_ of two gems striking the ground before it thuds into your own body. Grunting, you turn your head to see that you’re too late: the rebel, swords in both hands, stands between you and the one you’re supposed to be protecting.

Sapphire holds her ground like still water. Why isn’t she moving?

“Thank you, Ruby,” she says. “You did your best.”

You feel your temperature rising— _doesn’t she want to live? doesn’t she know how important she is?_ —and you remember, before the attack, she was so gracious when you knocked into her, your job was only to protect her and you already failed once and it was already your fault and she was _so nice to you_ —

“No!” The heat takes over, and you throw every ounce of your grit towards the enemy’s blade even as it swings towards you. Your hands catch Sapphire around the waist and you’ve done it, you’ve got her, you’re rocketing to safety.

Her hands find your shoulders and you balance so naturally as you turn in midair. You can feel her astonishment bleeding into your own wonder. Something in this moment is pure light. Something about it feels almost familiar.

“What?” you sigh. You open your eyes again and grimace with the shock of dimensionality.

You look down. Your knees are thick, your legs long, you don’t recognize your own colors. You clutch your hands to your face and gasp at the feeling of a gemstone against each cheek, neither out of place but for their simultaneity.

There they are, your hands, violet red and indigo blue. You blink and feel it thrice. The breeze slides between your fingers, bobs against the buoyancy of your hair, ruffles the tattered shred of her skirt—your skirt? “What?” you ask again, voice easy and strange. “What is this?”

The growing rage of the crowd begins to dawn on you, but you’re still fascinated, absorbed, marveling in the weight of your stance, in the clear ring of pure possibility in your head. “Is this…?”

The realization proves too much: the mirage is shattered, and you chime and snap apart, crying out in stereo.

You raise your hands again to find that they have resumed their former shade of blue, perfectly matched to the hair that near-obscures your gaze—more familiar and yet less than your mismatched hands of only moments ago.

Your single gem. The memory of two gemmed palms, two gemmed palms that belong to you, and a strange feeling of airiness that might have even been joy, is already fading. You feel a cool tear roll down the right side of your face and fall onto your remaining gem.

Blue Diamond’s voice cuts through your shock, but you cannot put your hands down. ”Sapphire,” she says, “this is not the scenario you described.”

Your lips tremble. “This is not what I saw,” you try to explain, but another tear is falling and you can hardly recall what used to seem so certain. “I don’t know what happened, I—”

“No!” Ruby shouts as she leaps in front of you, arms spread protectively, and her intonation feels so strangely familiar although you’ve only heard it from her once before. “It was me!”

You don’t know if she is telling the truth; you don’t know if it was you, either.

Your hands hover by your sides as your Diamond announces to the Ruby, “You will be broken for this.”

You feel the crowd closing in and you feel shattered already. Ruby is not moving. But you remember now: you remember what you felt, what _someone_ felt, moments before, and the Ruby before you has become the only one of her kind.

You take her arm, and for a moment that is all there is, and then you run.


End file.
